A L T H E A

   In District 5, there were two families that lived in the Victor's Village. Two out of the three victors were in the same one. In total, there were nine residents that occupied the space.
   Althea Hawkforge was one of them - she was both a victor and a resident, along with her father, Logan. Although her family did not have to work another day of their lives after she won the 66th Hunger Games, two out of three of her siblings chose to go everyday. Her youngest sibling and only sister, Willow, had been working, but with the looming day of labor on approach, the pregnant young woman had decided to quit her job in order to take care of herself and her child.
   Althea was making dinner - potatoes, again, if you were curious - for her family. Contrary to popular belief, the people of District 5, not only the Victors, were fed quite well. They were the electricity district, but they did not eat lightning bolts. Her father was upstairs in his study, most likely reading their mother's diary for the thousandth time again. It wasn't an insanity tick, or the fact that he could not let the woman go, but the fact that she wrote so much of her children in their young ages and she wrote of him with such adoration that he could simply not put the book down. Willow was nestled on the couch, napping softly with a quilt over her swollen belly.
   The clock on the wall struck six-thirty, and their brothers were always on schedule for dinner. Graham was talking rather loudly, but hushed himself when Blaze smacked him in the arm and pointed to the youngest Hawkforge. Althea held the plates in trembling hands as she placed them on the set table. It was a constant thing, the shaking.
   If you didn't know Althea Elizabeth Hawkforge on a personal level, you would assume that it was nerves, or trauma from her games. But what only her family and Laguna, her escort, knew was that the shaking wasn't any of those things, but rather, it was genetic. She was the only child to inherit the tremor from their father. Graham, with his dark brown hair tied back, went to retrieve their father for dinner, while Blaze gently woke up their little sister.
   Logan sat at the head of the table, as custom. Althea sat to his right, Blaze to her other side in all of his brawny glory. Across the table, Graham sat on their father's left, Willow on the boy's other side. At the end of the table sat an empty chair. It was where their mother used to sit, and the children always set a place for her.
   "Blaze finally got Elaine to go on a date with him!" Graham cheered abruptly. Willow was suddenly wide awake, her shocked expression matching Althea's. The Victor could feel her oldest sibling tense up like a shocked bull.
   "Elaine Hargreeve?" Althea gasped. "When?"
   "How?" Willow added. Logan watched his children with a joyful glint in his eyes.
   Blaze was flushed, his eyes shooting daggers at his younger brother. "Yes, Elaine Hargreeve. At lunch and I'm not really sure, I kind of spaced. It was an out of body experience, that much I can tell you." Althea snorted and Willow released a small giggle.
   "What are you doing for your date, son?" Logan took a sip of his wine, one of the few things that calmed his tremors.
   Blaze looked up at their father with a small smile. "I'm taking her on a picnic tomorrow for dinner," he mused, eyes alight in happiness.
   Althea snorted again. "Are you going to cook?"
   He scoffed. "Of course not, that's what I have you for, dear sisters," he gestured to the two girls. Graham laughed loudly, shaking his head.
   "Good thing, too. Wouldn't want to scare her off so soon, eh?" Everyone at the table erupted in laughter. Althea thought for a moment. The Reaping was tomorrow, meaning that she and her father would leave for the Capitol to mentor this year's tributes, so they would be gone for Blaze's date.
   "Surely you would not make a pregnant woman cook, Blaze!" Willow accused with narrowed, icy blue eyes. Blaze flushed again.
   "I guess not, I'll have to ask Mrs. Golsbane in the morning," he murmured softly. By that time, the family had finished their meals. Althea picked up her and Willow's plates, carefully holding them as she walked into the kitchen. The dishes were her mother's finest possession when she married Logan, and the girl wanted to cherish them for as long as possible. She heard the screen turn on in the living room, and then the dreadful sound of President Snow's voice.
   "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the 75th year of the Hunger Games," still clutching the plates tightly in her hands, the youngest Victor walked into the living room. Graham was on the love seat, Blaze and Willow on the couch with her feet in his lap, and their father in his chair. The Capitol's citizens went wild at his statement, making Althea want to vomit at their enjoyment of slaughter. "It was written in the Charter of the Games that in every 25 years, there would be a Quarter Quell to keep fresh for each generation the memory of those who died in the uprising against the Capitol," Althea sucked in a breath at his words. Keeping the plates in one hand, she reached down to grip her father's. "Each Quarter Quell is distinguished by games of special significance. And now, on this, the 75th anniversary of the defeat of the rebellion, we celebrate the third Quarter Quell. As a reminder that even the strongest cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, on this, the third Quarter Quell games, the male and female tributes are to be reaped from the existing pool of Victors."
   The plates dropped from Althea's hand, the one clutching her father's suddenly becoming squished in his grip. The shattering of the china and the outraged cries of her family drowned out the rest of the President's words.
   There was no other female Victor from District 5.
   Althea was going back to the games.
   Graham stormed out of the house. Blaze's sobs were tearing through Althea's soul. The oldest sister sat down on the couch in between Willow and Blaze, unable to think, unable to speak. Logan seemed to be in the same predicament, his mouth popped open slightly. There was a chance that he would be picked too, and the Hawkforge family would lose both of them. Willow pulled Althea into her strong hold. She let herself be held, the memories, the nightmares, everything crashing back. Never had she trusted the Capitol to let her or her father be completely free, so she was prepared physically, having practiced with both a sword and knives for the past nine years. But she looked at her father, who had not touched a blade in over thirty-five. Blaze wrapped his arms around both of his sisters, his body racked with now silent cries.
   Logan got up from his chair, silently leaving the room.
   And suddenly, even in the embrace of her siblings, she never felt more alone.